It's like everyone is suddenly skittish about being portrayed as a cruel owner of tortured human beings.

Following the trail worn by Mr. Kevin Costner and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who both reportedly left Django Unchained due to scheduling problems, Kurt Russell and Sacha Baron Cohen have now also departed the Quentin Tarantino slave revenge film. Cohen broke the news yesterday, telling Howard Stern that The Dictator's duties of showing up places in a beard are keeping him from the small role he had agreed to. Russell's departure was today confirmed by his reps, but there's still no official word on the reason. Someone on the IMDb message boards claims to know an insider who saw Russell storm off set "unhappy with his role saying it wasnt Western enough," but that seems unlikely: if Russell just walks off when he's unhappy with a role, that implies he must have been happy enough with his parts in Touchback, Poseidon, and Captain Ron, and that doesn't seem entirely plausible.

With Django Unchained still scheduled for a Christmas release, shooting will continue so long as Major Dad remains.